The public washroom on the northeast corner of Whyte Avenue and Gateway Boulevard will be staffed by an attendant as of Monday as part of a three month pilot project.
The attendant will serve as a host and maintain the facility, the city said Monday.
The project is a partnership between the City of Edmonton and Boyle Street Ventures Inc.
The city is paying the $36,000 cost of the project, while Boyle Street Ventures will oversee the logistics of the program, including hiring and training the attendant.
The attendants will be trained “to recognize unsafe situations and signs of distress in order to provide peer-to-peer counselling or assistance,” Jodi Phelan, general manager, Boyle Street Ventures Inc. said in a news release.
Boyle Street Ventures Inc. is a subsidiary of Boyle Street Community Services, which has “a mandate to tackle poverty using transformative employment opportunities for individuals who have barriers to accessing the formal job market,” the release said.
“We hope this program will spur street-level activity in the area by providing more options for shoppers, tourists and the general public,” said Nicole Fraser, a supervisor with the city.
The pilot supports a “commitment to increasing washroom access for individuals who have higher health needs and increasing dignity for vulnerable Edmontonians,” she said in the release.